Ryan Vero of OfficeMax explains how mail makes the retailer stand out.

Office supply retailer OfficeMax has earned high praise in recent years for carving out well-fitting places for itself across a variety of media. While some of the kudos in recent months have been in response to its digital campaigns, the company also is gaining attention for its work in more traditional channels.

Direct mail initiatives continue to loom particularly large at OfficeMax. For instance, it still offers a variety of catalogs. Also, mail plays a central role in helping the retailer understand specific customer segments. Deliver® reached out to Ryan Vero, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer at OfficeMax, to talk about why mail remains a mainstay in the company’s media mix.

Deliver: Has the economy affected your direct mail marketing efforts?

Vero: Direct mail is one of the areas of marketing to which we have remained committed. That’s because even with the economic downturn, it’s a tremendously effective vehicle for us — and historically has been. Catalogs still are part of the mix, but more recently we’ve been doing a lot of non-catalog direct mailing both for prospecting purposes and to continue the dialog with our small- and large-business customers. Direct mail lets us send targeted communications to specific customer segments in a cost-effective way.

Deliver: What segments are you targeting these days?

Vero: We’re focusing our marketing communications more on our female customers. In general, women control the majority of purchasing for individual consumption, but more important for us, for business consumption, too. However, we noticed that this customer was not being taken care of in the office industry in general. Direct mail gives us the opportunity to send very targeted communications to this customer segment that specifically address her needs. So far, the response rates have been very good.

Deliver: What’s helping you better understand customer needs?

Vero: We’ve updated and refined our modeling efforts in the past year across various customer segments, and even subsegments within these larger groups. It’s helping us better identify the type of offers, communications and messages to send to a particular customer. Working with the customer data provided through our MaxPerks customer loyalty program, we can ascertain a lot about a customer and model them against other customers. This gives us insight into how effectively we have communicated with the customer in the past. We can determine what savings opportunities they’re not taking advantage of, or which ones we should show them. For example, a customer who purchases presentation materials also is likely to need to make copies for those presentations. If those customers aren’t making any copies with us, we can send a relevant direct mail offer with an incentive to try our copying services.

Deliver: Are you getting any surprising responses?

Vero: For years, we’ve been sending out an acquisition letter that comes from me personally. It’s amazing the number of times I get a note back from someone thanking me for sending them a letter and telling me something about their experience with OfficeMax. This is a terrific level of engagement with our customers, and it’s driven by direct mail. In fact, the response to this campaign has increased over time. It’s a reflection of how special it is to get a personalized letter these days.

Deliver: Any other efforts you’re particularly proud of?

Vero: A direct mail campaign we used to bid on the business of a large bank. We sent top executives a metal suitcase filled with stacks of paper money. The top bill of each pile communicated some of OfficeMax’s services and solutions. Inside there also was an MP3 player loaded with videos we produced of our executives talking about how OfficeMax would serve the bank’s needs. It helped us break through the clutter and get our message in the hands of a number of senior executives at the bank with a targeted communication that spoke directly to them.

Deliver: What new trends do you think will change the way we market?

Vero: I find it inspiring that we’re getting very close to a cost-effective rate for variable data printing for high-volume mailers. There’s been a lot of talk about being able to do true one-to-one direct mail, but so far it’s been more theory than reality. Sure, you could do it from a technological standpoint and get better response rates, but the higher costs meant the return was a lot lower. However, as the costs have compressed and the technology has improved, I’m optimistic that we’re going to achieve true one-to-one marketing on a large-scale basis sooner rather than later.